This collection contains the slide photography of Mildred Schaeffer Zichner (1910-2008) as a record of travels with her husband, Walter Zichner (1907-1991), family and friends across the globe. The Zichners traveled to Canada, South Africa, South America, Egypt, Iran, Russia, China, Turkey, Greece, Italy, England, Ireland and many destinations within the United States during a 30-40 year period. Some of their travels were aboard a sailing vessel named "Polaris," which is referred to in a series of boxes. An estimated 40,000 images are part of this unique collection of travel imagery.

The slides are all 35mm color images, which are organized alphabetically, then by date, as well as numerically, by Roman numeral. Each slide box contains an estimated 200 color images. Materials are arranged by travel series, which will include anywhere from 1-7 boxes. When the name of a place is not used, the name of the vacation or method of travel is stated instead. In each set, thousands of images are numbered and identified by subject.